Somebody to Love: The Life, Death, and Legacy of Freddie Mercury

I brought this book as I’ve been a long time fan of both Freddie and Queen...and was also aware that the recent Bohemian Rhapsody biography had both whitewashed and altered certain aspects of Freddie’s life (i.e that it really toned down his love life and also altered the timeline for when Freddie told the band that he had HIV/AIDS- which was much later than depicted in the film). So although I knew that this boom was going to likely touch on HIV and AIDS I didn’t realise that it would weave this so intrinsically into his story - going back to how HIV started in 1908 and it’s journey from the Congo and across the world. This however doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a bio about Freddie either - and when the development of HIV runs in parallel with Freddie’s life and his lifestyle this is done in such a way that it’s 100% relevant. There’s also a huge insight into the legend that is Freddie - his song writing, his huge part as a member of Queen...but also his struggle with keeping his lifestyle a secret from the world whilst also fully taking part in the emerging gay culture. I literally couldn’t put this book down / the amount of research that went into it was amazing and it includes insight from many of those who were around Freddie. The opening chapter alone is so well written that you feel that you’re in the room with Freddie and hearing the thoughts inside his head. Thoroughly recommended if you a) want to cut through the PG version of the Bohemian Rhapsody film (which is still an epic film - it just annoyed and amazed me that it glossed over so much and also altered so key facts) and b) learn more about how HIV transformed the lives of so many people as well as Freddie

I bought this book for my mum who was interested in reading it - when she was finished I asked her for it and haven't been able to put it down - being 25 years old myself and only 6 moths old when he died I have learned so much about frieddie mercury which I've never known. I've always liked queens music but never really gave his sad death a lot of thought as it wasn't really my era. After reading this however I have realised how hard they all worked and how difficult it was for their band to become what it did indeed become. It goes into so much detail and tells you a lot about the virus and how it originated and spread - it's extremely heartbreaking to read at times but it has opened my eyes to so much of the virus and I find it all fascinating but very sad too. It talks of the difficulty Freddie was facing throughout his whole life - coming out and then aids. Really amazing book would recommend it to anyone - I would even say you don't even have to be a big queen fan to enjoy this book just a brilliant read.

Very well researched book about Mercury, his life and loves and the history of aids... the author seemed to very sure within a window of a month or so when he contracted the illness. The last few chapters are a painful read as he went gradual then accelerated decline.. Good book well recommended

Very good book, Highly recommended.

What can I say about this book? I read it in almost one sitting as I couldn't put it down. It is breathtaking storytelling, heartfelt, profoundly moving and just left me gobsmacked. It likely isn't for everyone but I found it incredible. I loved Freddie and this took me into his heart and left me at times utterly drained and tearful. It is smart and intelligent and documents not only the story of Freddie but so much more - the times, his struggle with his sexuality and the terrible disease of AIDS. I can't begin to tell you quite how much I would recommend this book. The writers clearly adore Freddie and clearly deeply respect him. You would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by it. SIMPLY WONDERFUL

A must for every Freddie fan, great to read about this amazing man

Bought the Kindle version. So far have read roughly one third but I'm very happy with my purchase. Very engaging and easy to read. Once start reading I can hardly put it down. Well written with detailed information about Queen and interesting background information not directly related to Queen. Overall, very good read. A must read for Freddie Mercury/Queen fans but also for anyone who loves biographies. Would definitely recommend.

I just couldn't put this book down. I was never a Freddie or Queen fan but watched the Who Wants to Live Forever domicile and felt so sorry for Freddie. I had to go further and find out more of what made the man tick. This book does it all, and I'm won over and just about to order the Platinum Collection. Thank you for such in depth research which obviously was done by you Matt, I was even mesmerized by all the HIV AIDS information. Would recommend this to everyone, whether you loved or hated Freddie.

Je suis une fan de Freddie de Queen depuis mon plus jeune âge et j'ai adoré lire ce livre ! Excellent pour les plus grands fans de ce chanteur hors-norme avec une voix de maestro !!

Cue the instrumental version of the Gospel song, Guide Me Home. --An appropriate tune to accompany the arresting prose with which Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne describe the final fortnight in the life of the frontman of one of the most popular bands on Earth. Amid the news events of November 10,1991, a private jet flies home from Switzerland to London with a terminally ill passenger who may well have been oblivious to world events, but whom, by month's end, would be the focus of world attention once again. As a car takes the patient, now with failing eyesight home, and the electronic gate of his Garden Lodge, Kensington estate mansion closes behind him for the last time in his life, we are given a sense of a life that is permanently (and prematurely) shutting down, amid trappings of splendor, including Japanese objets d'art, collected from the country that loved and warmly embraced him and his three colleagues so well for 16 years, and perhaps, more relevantly, a grand piano with a closed fallboard its owner will never play again. Upstairs in a master bedroom with faded yellow walls, he receives his medication intravenously.A favorite film--1959's Imitation of Life plays on a VCR.But he is too Ill to weep at the ending any longer. He could hear the press and paparazzi--speculative about his condition for years--chattering outside his Japanese garden. The terminally ill male, aged 45, suffered from AIDS, and had loaned himself out for the testing of experimental drugs for three years.In previous times, his strong constitution withstood copious amounts of booze, unprotected sex, and cocaine.But the experimental drugs have proven futile. As a cold, grey wet Autumn day shrouded London, and the master of the Garden Lodge Estate has decided to go off his medication, taking only painkillers, the Zanzibar born master pianist, and rock showman extraordinaire with the given name of Farrokh Bulsara, better known as Freddie Mercury, is holed up with his nearest and dearest, resigned to his fate. The intriguing aspect of this 2016 biography--released in time for the 25th anniversary of the singer's death, is that in addition, it chronicles the history of AIDS from its origin and journey around the world as it finds its way towards Freddie Mercury through, unfortunately, every hedonistic fault of his own. We review the life of the gifted singer/songwriter through his birth in Zanzibar, time in boarding school in his parents' native India where he formed his first band, the Hectics, had his first sexual encounter, and the likely impact of being sent away from home at such an early age had on his later behavior. After his return home, an uprising drove the Bulsaras--including father, Bomi, a government accountant, wife, Jer, 12-year-old daughter,Kashmira, as well as 17-year-old Farrokh--out of Zanzibar, they settled in London, near Heathrow Airport, where Farrokh later worked. Studying at Isleworth Polytechnic College, then at Ealing Art College--a pre-cursor to a music career for many rock stars, Freddie Bulsara(as he was known before a final name change)meets his future lifelong colleagues, including Brian May, who lived not far from the Bulsaras, Roger Taylor, who became his roommate, and with whom he ran an antique clothing stall in their salad days,and later bassist, John Deacon. Beforehand, he is involved with a band called Ibex, who name changed to Wreckage, and another short-lived band called Sour Milk Sea. Mercury had a brief romance with one Rosemary Pearson, who grew disenchanted with his attraction to men.A later romantic interest who became his lifelong friend and confidante, Mary Austin, would be a bit more tolerant. His status as a hanger-on of May and Taylor's band, Smile changes, as will the band's name from Smile to Queen. As the legends-to-be come together, beginning their epic but tempestuous 20-year odyssey, the virus that would impact the band's history, which was traced from a slain monkey that bit and infected the Bantu hunter that killed it in the Congo in 1908,and which the hunter may have transmitted to one or more prostitutes, whose clients may have spread it to wives and/or girlfriends back home in Europe, had by that point, been spread by re-used, but badly washed hypodermic needles used to combat African Sleeping Sickness, but which still carried traces of HIV, had by the 1970s, been spread to Haiti by teachers, and social workers who were exposed during time in the former Belgian Congo , where they filled in jobs formerly occupied by Belgian officials who returned home--the backfiring of UNESCO Goodwill program. A blood plasma center in Port-au-Prince was open for two years.Impoverished Haitians donated blood for money to sustain the US blood bank because well-to-do Americans were less likely to.But since supplies of donated blood were not checked for a virus no one thought to look for at the time, many may have received HIV that way as well. The plight of Missouri teenager, Robert Rayford, who died of what is now recognized as HIV in 1969, and who case was publicized in 1986 is duly noted.But how he contracted it remains a mystery. A Canadian flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas, who would be misidentified as Patient Zero, contacted the virus in the 1970s, as did actor, Rock Hudson. Mercury was acquainted with both men, and the partner he and Dugas had in common was John Murphy. In 1976,three members of the Roed Family of Bored, Norway would become the first known cluster case of the disease all three died within a year. The hedonistic atmosphere of New York during the US Bicentennial celebration provided more opportunities for the disease to spread.A West Greenwich Village club for gays called The Mineshaft opened in the meat packing district that year.Mercury would join its list of notable clients around 1980, and the book suggests this is where he may have been infected around 1982, although other sources claim that may have happened between 1976 and 1978. While the world enjoyed Queen's musical catalog, including Killer Queen, You're My Best Friend, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Somebody to Love, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites the Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Radio Ga Ga,A Kind of Magic, Under Pressure, and of course, Bohemian Rhapsody, among others, the self-destructive behaviors will alter the band's fate. The book notes an observation by one Dr. Thomas Schmidt about the almost compulsive promiscuity among homosexuals, but also of how unfulfilling many of them find their own behavior. The most popular band in the world by 1980, Queen would continue to have its ups and downs.By mid-decade, they faced penalties for violating a UN ban on artists performing in South Africa in protest of Apartheid by playing at the resort in Sun City. But a high point of drama is the story of the band's redemption at Live Aid the following year when at 6:44PM on Saturday, July 13,1985 Queen's African-born frontman and colleagues took the stage to perform to help starving children in Africa before 72,000 at Wembley Stadium, 100,000 at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, and a worldwide television audience of 1.9 billion .With the best amplified performance, they were truly the Champions of the moment, and that is known as The Day Queen Ruled the World! But signs of Mercury's impending downward spiral were visible even then, in the hoarseness of his voice (he had a cough that day and ignored the advice of a doctor at Wembley against his performing),and a purple mark on his right arm which may have been one of his first sarcomas. Later that year the death of Rock Hudson from AIDS further fueled his anxiety. In counterpoint to the main narrative are the perspectives of his mother,his sister, his band mates,Mary Austin, his friend, actor/singer, Peter Straker, journalist, Lesley-Ann Jones, rock critic, Paul Gambaccini, who claims to have unsuccessfully tried to warn Mercury about modifying his behavior, singer Marc Almond, Jim Hutton, Peter Freestone, Montserrat Caballe,et.al. that round out the story.We also read about the destructive influence of Mercury's lover and personal assistant, Paul Prenter, who succumbed to AIDS three months before the singer did. It begins with a famous quote by Socrates:The unexamined life is not worth living. But this cautionary tale of a gifted, but self-destructive life, like so many before and since, also recounts how a tragic loss further galvanized the fight against AIDS, especially via the memorial concert at Wembley the following spring, and the foundation of the anti-AIDS organization, The Mercury Phoenix Trust, and how the musical stylings of Freddie Mercury continue to delight and inspire, with wisdom and much relevant insight on offer. The star may have fallen, but the legacy continues to rise.

One of my favourite books in this genre. Freddie is one of my idiols but apart from that the book is written really well. Part of the book contains interesting info about the origin of AIDS and patient 0.

Super.

Freddie Mercury's life is interwoven with his musical career as the lead singer and composer of Queen and the history of the spread of Aids. I read it after watching the movie Bohemian Rhapsody and I enjoyed making comparisons with it. I very much appreciated the fact that the authors quoted their sources in details. Beautiful photos are included at the end, which I had never seen before.